Sometimes, it can be quicker and more expressive to simply patch together what you want from basic building blocks, rather than wrangle with something built for a specific purpose. And that explains the ongoing appeal of modular software environments. Audulus is an elegant, efficient modular environment on the Mac. It’s not as deep or broad as some alternatives, but it does bring a range of ideas to making these features easy to use.

And now, it’s coming to the iPad. That’s significant for several reasons. First, it could be one of the nicest modulars to grace the iPad, for people looking for touch interfaces to do such things. Secondly, it’ll have a round-trip workflow with the Mac version. So, for those of you who see iPads as a companion to a laptop, rather than a placement, using the two in harmony could work nicely.

CDM has an exclusive first look at the video demonstrating the UI. Since it’s easier to see these features than listen to me talking about it, I’ll let your eyes have at it.

The usability and workflow features look great (with tools like iCloud, even if I prefer Dropbox). This one will be nice to try. It’s a shame I’m stuck on the first-generation iPad, but I think a lot of us in that boat will be watching Apple closely this week.

This looks very, very promising, but there’s one question that has yet to be answered: How does it sound? How does it compare to something like Reaktor or even Max/MSP (where I’d say that Reaktor has its own sound in a way and Max/MSP has perhaps less of a trademark sound). All the flexibility and nice user experience doesn’t amount to anything if the sound is not there and from the background audio in the clip I think I get the impression that soundwise Audulus might not (yet?) be able to replace certain pieces of software or hardware although the GUI looks really sweet and I’ve been waiting for something like this to come out.

Good question, and we should focus on getting some actual sound and music samples.

I don’t think you’re going to replace Max or Reaktor or Pd or even AudioMulch. That’s like comparing LEGO bricks to a CNC. This is a different, simpler tool that happens to share the dataflow paradigm with those tools. They have sonic toolsets that are an order of magnitude bigger. That said, for patching up something quickly on the iPad, this looks promising. I hope we can cover it in more detail soon; consider this a teaser.

Random Chance

This looks very, very promising, but there’s one question that has yet to be answered: How does it sound? How does it compare to something like Reaktor or even Max/MSP (where I’d say that Reaktor has its own sound in a way and Max/MSP has perhaps less of a trademark sound). All the flexibility and nice user experience doesn’t amount to anything if the sound is not there and from the background audio in the clip I think I get the impression that soundwise Audulus might not (yet?) be able to replace certain pieces of software or hardware although the GUI looks really sweet and I’ve been waiting for something like this to come out.

Good question, and we should focus on getting some actual sound and music samples.

I don’t think you’re going to replace Max or Reaktor or Pd or even AudioMulch. That’s like comparing LEGO bricks to a CNC. This is a different, simpler tool that happens to share the dataflow paradigm with those tools. They have sonic toolsets that are an order of magnitude bigger. That said, for patching up something quickly on the iPad, this looks promising. I hope we can cover it in more detail soon; consider this a teaser.

Chad Clark

If you’re trying to demonstrate innovative software, please commission an innovative composer to score your demonstration video. The music behind this piece was so normal/banal, it worked against the intent of the video: to generate excitement.

vt100

Usually when i’m checking out an instrument i’m interested in the general feel and sound of it. When it comes to innovation I often consider that my task as an artist whereas the task of the demo is to help me determine whether or not I can drive that instrument to a creative place. Sounds like your problem is more with your imagination, I think the video does fine to show me what I need to about the instrument itself.

Chad Clark

?? Are you trying to dis me? If so, that’s cute. I’m not gonna return fire, then I’d just feel sad for both of us. I was just pointing out that the music behind this demonstration seems to have been an afterhtought and for most consumers, that does not bode well for the tool itself. The world is saturated with apps. I was just trying to offer instructive criticism to the creators, who are clearly more clever than the sonics of this presentation suggest. Further insinuations about the paucity of my imagination can be directed to chad@beautypill.com. Cheers. – c

Chad Clark

If you’re trying to demonstrate innovative software, please commission an innovative composer to score your demonstration video. The music behind this piece was so normal/banal, it worked against the intent of the video: to generate excitement.

vt100

Usually when i’m checking out an instrument i’m interested in the general feel and sound of it. When it comes to innovation I often consider that my task as an artist whereas the task of the demo is to help me determine whether or not I can drive that instrument to a creative place. Sounds like your problem is more with your imagination, I think the video does fine to show me what I need to about the instrument itself.

Chad Clark

?? Are you trying to dis me? If so, that’s cute. I’m not gonna return fire, then I’d just feel sad for both of us. I was just pointing out that the music behind this demonstration seems to have been an afterhtought and for most consumers, that does not bode well for the tool itself. The world is saturated with apps. I was just trying to offer instructive criticism to the creators, who are clearly more clever than the sonics of this presentation suggest. Further insinuations about the paucity of my imagination can be directed to chad@beautypill.com. Cheers. – c

CDM is an online magazine for creative technology, from music and DJing to motion and more.